February 2012
1 post
Combine PDFs
I combine PDF pages on my Mac fairly often, and I’m usually frustrated by Preview’s tendency to increase the file size of anything that isn’t purely text-based, often to ridiculous proportions. Here is an AppleScript that combines multiple PDFs without increasing the total size. If you save it as an application (from AppleScript Editor), you can even drop files onto it.
on...
January 2012
2 posts
“Was it not for prodigality, nothing could make us amends for the rapine and...”
–
-Bernard Mandeville, being more radical than he ever gets credit for, in The Fable of the Bees
November 2011
1 post
Alfred Marshall and A. C. Pigou, being, of course,...
October 2011
1 post
September 2011
2 posts
March 2011
2 posts
Coase Against Torture
I’m taking a course on data analysis, and the book contains the following quote from economist Ronald Coase: “If you torture the data long enough, Nature will confess.” The book makes it seem like Coase approves of this process, calling it a “lofty goal.”
As someone with a casual interest in economics, I didn’t think Coase, a theoretician, would have such a...
February 2011
1 post
Diogenes, Anarchist
A notion has been going around recently that many tribal customs may be a traditional means of avoiding domination by conquering states. This has a lot to do with a relatively recent book by James C. Scott, The Art of Not Being Governed, which deals specifically with Southeast Asia. He summarizes the argument nicely in the introduction:
“Today, they are seen from the valley kingdoms as...
December 2010
1 post
The Art of Inflation
Sun Tzu, observing but not necessarily understanding the correlation between an increase in the money supply and inflation:
“When soldiers are near, things sell dearly. When things sell dearly, wealth is exhausted. When wealth is exhausted, people are hard pressed by local taxes.”
Presumably, the locals have wages fixed by law or tradition, which leaves little money for taxes once...
September 2010
1 post
Burkean Whig Rock
“Why do you question
When there’s no answer told?
Plain truth is nothing
You can’t buy it when it’s sold
Save all your money
And they won’t reason why
Why all the worry?
They’ll spend it when you die
Don’t look for something
Plain truth is nothing,
nothing but the plain truth”
-Gentle Giant, “Plain Truth”
On the cover...
“I, too, have a pet little evil, to which in more passionate moments I am apt to...”
– Henry Hazlitt, Thinking as a Science
March 2009
1 post
Diogenes and the Diamonds-Water Paradox
Famous for being the only philosopher in recorded history who wasn’t insufferably boring, Diogenes of Sinope used a combination of asceticism, sarcasm, and violence to demonstrate to the citizens of Athens their complete lack of virtue.
Diogenes based his Cynical philosophy on action and common sense, rejecting metaphysical constructs and thought “paradoxes”. According to the...
August 2008
1 post
Iconic Icons
The icons on the original Macintosh were simple 32 x 32 grids of black and white pixels. Nevertheless, Susan Kare was able to create some of the most easily-recognizable icons of all time, including a frighteningly realistic Steve Jobs, under these harsh technological restrictions.
Why is it that such simple forms can communicate what an icon represents so efficiently, while high-resolution and...
February 2008
1 post
Spatial
Everyone says the Finder should be more spatial. But that’s a bit vague—what does it even mean? Here’s an everyday example of why spatiality is nice.
I have several folders on my Mac devoted to solely to images from the internet. Since such images usually have gibberish filenames and the content is what’s important, Cover Flow is perfect for viewing these folders in the...
October 2007
2 posts
KotOR: a Case Study
Note: The information in this post is out of date. Aspyr has released a newer version of KotOR on the Mac App Store that I haven’t played.
People often ask why nobody plays video games on the Mac. This is a post for those people.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has been out for a very long time (Sidenote: The sequel to KotOR is still not out on the Mac and probably never will be)....
Making Icon View Work
Daniel Jalkut, developer of MarsEdit, has issued a call for everyone to start blogging. So:
If you’re a mere mortal like me, you browse the Finder in icon view. Big icons are easy to recognize, and they let me use Fitts’ Law to click on things faster. Yes, the intuitive simplicity of icon view is truly a wondrous thing.
However, getting a file up one folder level is not. You need...